A highly intense fifth season of "Sons of Anarchy" came to an end on FX Tuesday night with a series of shocking twists. On Wednesday afternoon, series creator and showrunner Kurt Sutter took to the phone for a conference call with reporters to discuss the show's most-watched season finale ever, and plans for Season 6.

Here are some tidbits from the call:

On the mental state of Jax, in the wake of all his ruthless maneuvering:

"I really wanted to get to a place where perhaps Jax realizes he's better at being an outlaw than is being a husband and father," Sutter said. ",,, There's an allure that comes with power and prestige that he wasn't aware of (before) ...

As much as he has said he wants to leave, perhaps he's not ready to leave."

On Gemma's Season 5 journey:

Sutter acknowledged that Gemma hit rock bottom this season and still managed to crawl her way back up.

"She's just a (bleeping) cockroach, man. She's hard to kill."

"At the end, my intent was for her to sort of have her balls back," he added. "It's hard to cheer that on, but there's a sense of her always landing back on her feet. And her justification is that she's always taking care of her family."

On the impact of Opie's death on the season:

Sutter said he wanted Opie's gruesome demise to "knock the wind out of not only the audience, but the club as well."

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"It gave me a life-altering circumstance for my hero (Jax) and allowed me to accelerate his journey," he noted. " ... It was a way we could organically push Jax to the edge to see what kind of leader he would become."

On the possible return of key guest stars:

Donal Logue will be "definitely" be back for Season 6, for seven or eight episodes, most likely even more. And he'll play a key role.

"His character will be a big character and probably the most dangerous weapon (from law enforcement) the club has faced," said Sutter, pointing out that because Logue's character is a retired officer, he won won't have the "morality hurdles."

As for Jimmy Smits, Sutter would "love" to have him back, but it depends on the actor's availability. "He adds such a gravitas, and I loved bringing in that new sort of culture into the show," the producer said. "And I love the relationship with he has going with Gemma."

Sutter also wants to bring back Drea de Matteo, but again, it will depend on her availability. She's apparently in a pilot for the upcoming season.

On why he had Otto (a character played by Sutter) bit off his tongue:

Sutter apparently told his writers that he wanted Otto to lose his tongue so he (Sutter) would be spared of having to learn dialogue. The writers laughed it off, but then came an opportunity to make it happen.

"It was his way of sending a message to the club and the authorities that you're not going to get a word out of me," Sutter said. "If he does come back, it will be just grunts and scribbling (stuff) on paper."

On Clay's future role in the show, now that he's headed for prison:

"I want there to be a sense that he's essentially a dead man walking," Sutter said. "In other words, Jax was successful with his death-by-proxy plan ... For now, I'm not sure whether he'll make it through Season 6 or not ... Maybe can end up with Otto and they can bite off each other's body parts."

On the reappearance of the homeless lady in the finale:

"She's a little bit of my Shakespearean ode to magic," said Sutter, who warned fans not to expect some "big revelatory moment" between her and Jax, although she may continue to pop up every once in a while.

On whether he still plans to wrap things up in seven seasons:

Sutter said that remains his goal, but things could change. If he gets halfway through Season 6 and feels like he needs more time to complete the saga, he'll have a conversation with FX about either extending Season 7 or tacking on an eighth season.

"But I don't want to pad and fluff, and drag things out just for the sake of doing an eighth season," he said.

(Sutter and his writing team will reconvene in early February to begin penning Season 6).